Hermeticism and Hellenistic Influences
What I learned in an interview with Dr. Jeremy LaBuff, Part 2.
If you read my last post, this post is a continuation of that one. In that post, I discussed the meeting I had with Dr. Jeremy LaBuff, one of Northern Arizona University’s experts on Ancient Greece and the Hellenistic world. In that meeting, we discussed the various influences that went into The Corpus Hermetica, seeing as Hermeticism is a religious, magical, and philosophical tradition born out of multiple cultures of the Mediterranean. While the last post focused on inspiration for the Hermetica from classical Greece, I wanted to expand this post to focus on other inspirations as well.
One of these influences is Egyptian in nature - possibly. The reason I say possibly is because this connection isn’t as obvious or as concrete as those previously mentioned. One concept that we saw in the text that Dr. LaBuff drew a connection to was henotheism. Oxford dictionary defines henotheism as “A form of faith which, although recognizing the existence (or potential existence) of several gods, makes only one god the centre of its worship.”1 While many religions and traditions around the world practice hedonism, Dr. LaBuff specifically mentioned the Cult of Isis. The Cult of Isis, as it was explained to me, was a sect of Egyptians that primarily worshipped Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. The Cult of Isis acknowledged other deities of the Egyptian pantheon, but kept Isis as its focus.2 A similar structure seems to exist in Hermeticism, found in the third Treatise, The Sacred Sermon:
And Heaven was seen in seven circles; its Gods were visible in forms of stars with all their signs; while Nature had her members made articulate together with the Gods in her. And [Heaven's] periphery revolved in cyclic course, borne on by Breath of God.
3. And every God by his own proper power brought forth what was appointed him. Thus there arose four−footed beasts, and creeping things, and those that in the water dwell, and things with wings, and everything that beareth seed, and grass, and shoot of every flower, all having in themselves seed of again−becoming.3
Here, we see an idea of henotheism established in The Corpus Hermetica in this passage. God, usually equated to the god worshipped in the Abrahamic faith, is described as creating gods (with a lower case g) to do His bidding in the creation of the universe. Yet, Hermeticism still only recognizes one God (with a capital g) responsible for creating everything and guiding man back to Himself. Interestingly, too, Dr. LaBuff explained to me that it was a belief among the Cult of Isis that everybody who believed in her was a part of Isis themselves - everybody was collectively Isis.4 A similar idea, or at least sentiment is present in Hermeticism. In the first Treatise of the Hermetica, it is stated that God created mankind explicitly in his own image and allowed them to grow to become more like Him; just like how the Cult of Isis believed that they each shared a part of her, mankind all shared a part of God within them in the Hermetic story. While these comparisons to the Cult of Isis aren’t as direct or concrete as those to the classic Greek philosophers, they are interesting to note how henotheistic traditions might have been more widespread in the mediterranean than initially thought.
The last interesting cultural interaction that inspired the Hermetica I want to catalogue here is the existence of God. That might come across as strange to bring up God so late in these posts, but it was a very interesting idea Dr. LaBuff brought up to me. He explained to me that in Ancient Greece, there was no real concept of God or religion.5 The gods existed to them sure, but they were just part of everyday life - they were all aspects of existence. Yet, Hermeticism has a clear concept of God, despite drawing heavy influence from Greek thinking. That indicates the idea of God in Hermeticism came from elsewhere. While no concrete evidence exists of where that may be, Dr. LaBuff and I theorized that it likely adapted ideas from early Christianity. Christianity emerged out of the mid-1st century CE through Jesus Christ, a Jewish preacher who proclaimed he was the son of God. After the death of Christ, his disciples spread the religion far and wide out of the Middle East to the Mediterranean and across Europe. The Corpus Hermetica is theorized to have been written largely between the 2nd-4th centuries CE, making it feasible that Christianity influenced the authors. Additionally, Islam would not be created in modern-day Saudi Arabia until the 7th century CE. Considering that most religions and cultures coming out of the Hellenistic world at that time were henotheistic or polytheistic, that narrows it down to early Christianity as the inspiration for God in Hermeticism. As further evidence, the God worshipped in Christianity and the God worshipped in Hermeticism share many characteristics - both Gods create man in their own image, maintain a close relationship with them, create the universe, and encourage humans to grow closer to them.
Both of these comparisons from Hermeticism to different cultures of the Hellenistic world, as well as the ones from my last post, are the reason I am so fascinated with Hermeticism. It's such a unique tradition that shows how human cultures are malleable, transmutable, and compatible with others. As a student of history, these connections fascinate me and inspire me to go out and learn more about our interconnected world. I think that studying unique cultural interactions and products, like Hermeticism, and drawing conclusions about them are integral to becoming a well-informed global citizen.
Home : Oxford English Dictionary. Accessed May 8, 2025. https://www.oed.com/.
Hazel Butler, “The Cult of Isis and Early Christianity ,” University of Hawaii, Hilo, n.d. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/Vol05x19TheCultofIsis.pdf.
The Corpus Hermeticum & Hermetic Tradition -- introduction TO the translation,Accessed May 4, 2025, http://www.gnosis.org/library/hermet_intro.htm.
Jeremy LaBuff, in-person meeting with the author, March 27, 2025.
Jeremy LaBuff, in-person meeting with the author, March 27, 2025.